Design contribution for sustainable fashion

stock fabric is considered a possibility as the collecting in-house is not possible. However, second-hand seem to increase and reusing seem to have the possibility to grow, if designers produce quality fabrics.

standpoint (Nielsen, 2019) is because established organisations collaborate with suppliers and already offer consumers a certain product range (Tobiasen, 2019; Adler, 2019). Adler (2019) describes how it may not be possible to find a sustainable fabric to substitute the conventional fabrics used in a popular product and questions how to deal with or get rid of that product.

Adler (2019) state that every process starts with the designers and not the suppliers, since any changes in the value chain require large capacity. Theory confirms this as it is the design that defines how the garment is made and how it is disposed of (Kahn and Islam, 2015). Despite designers being the ones making decisions and defining where products will end (Adler, 2019), Nielsen (2019) argue that the responsibility not only lies within the design and production, but that the sales team also needs to perform to obtain the minimum

requirements. Theory again confirms that designers must know the impact of every step of the value chain (Kahn and Islam, 2015). Adler (2019) however argue that designers cannot perform better than the options available to them. Therefore both the designers’ knowledge on options (Kahn and Islam, 2015) and adaptation to sustainable options (Starik and

Kanashiro, 2015) is confirmed to be important. An example is when Møgelgaard (2019) had the responsibility to implement the H&M garment collection in every Danish store, to train employees and secure that the transportation and logistics were as sustainable as possible.

As Caniato et al. (2012) suggest, it has also provided H&M with new business possibilities.

Men and women wear clothes differently. Men are often more conservative than women, while women's wear also include more product groups (Nielsen, 2019). It is considered easier to produce materials with sustainability properties, like recycling, for women, due to the possibility of ordering larger quantities of fabric and the possibility to create a variety of things from it, while men’s wear can be focused on clean, rerunning fabrics of one material (Nielsen, 2019). Organic and sustainable clothes for children is proved of interest by consumers, as both H&M and Serendipity Organics experience that consumers demand organic materials for babies and children (Møgelgaard, 2019; Tobiasen, 2019). Further Nielsen (2019) also experiences a demand to produce organic or recycled by buyers. This is in terms of use of toxic chemicals and dyes (Elmkvist, 2019). Chemicals and resources used in production have large effect on the environment, but using organic fibres is stated to help nurture soil and animals (Caniato, Caridi, Crippa, Moretto, 2012).

Lykketoft (2019) states that you cannot be sustainable and continue the model for economic growth because: “...You have to have those fundamental changes concerning, what is it that you produce - how do you produce it”. Møgelgaard (2019) supports this statement as

designers now have to figure out how to design products that keep the quality and style that consumers are used to, while the clothing properties makes it possible to disassemble and make into a new product. As sustainability is often seen as conflicting with creativity, designers need to overcome this challenge and with that obtain economic advantage (Stables, 2009).

Many new materials have emerged with different advantages and disadvantages and training is needed for designers to choose the right ones and see design as building blocks to be disassembled again after use (Møgelgaard, 2019). Theory on disassembling down to fibre or polymer, gives opportunity to also make products from recycling (Sandin and Peters, 2018). Adler (2019) also describe ways to make more squared patterns to minimize waste or to use zero-waste patterns, but many styles, like shirts and sweaters, simply require some fundamental silhouettes. Stables (2009) explain that creativity and design can be used to

‘design out’ negative impact, which arguably is an opportunity with the methods above.

5.3.2 Design barriers

Kahn and Islam (2015) state that designers lack knowledge on the environmental impact of designs. When thinking and working with sustainability, Adler (2019) argues that some things simply are solved through the right suppliers. Theory also states that sustainability can be achieved through the right choice of supplier and training of suppliers (Caniato et al, 2012). Further, it is also stated that even small steps can help the environmental impact (García-de-Frutos, Ortega-Egea and Martinez-del-Rio, 2016). Bigger companies like H&M or Nike might have the ability to put large demands on suppliers, like energy changes, whereas small companies have to select suppliers according to their new sustainable values (Adler, 2019). Sustainable values in products have a positive effect on consumers (Kahn and Islam, 2015) and theory supports involving suppliers and environmentalists in the sustainability process (Desore and Narula, 2019). Therefore fashion brands need to establish rules for how they wish to work with sustainability and be ready to potentially discard valuable styles (Adler, 2019).

Initiatives by designers vary from making organic garments as much as possible and using natural fibres (Tobiasen, 2019), to choosing objectives aiming at 80% sustainable fibres in denim and 90% in jersey (Nielsen, 2019) to further making basic products like denim more sustainable (Fredin, 2019), because denim is found to be one of the worst polluting

productions (Fredin, 2019). A basic assumption around sustainable clothing is that it looks sustainable and not fashionable (Adler, 2019), which confirms the theory that states that

consumers believe it is out of trend (Desore and Narula, 2019). Further it is assumed that recycled clothing may not have a nice finish in terms of seams, edges and will look

homemade (Nielsen, 2019), which stems with the assumption about poor quality made by Desore and Narula (2019).

In connection with theory on consumption and initiatives (Desore and Narula, 2018), design barriers are that consumers find sustainability too expensive (Elmkvist, 2019; Fredin, 2019) and not all consumers are interested in sustainability (Tobiasen, 2019). If consumers are not willing to pay for sustainability efforts by organisations, it eliminates the economic benefits (Stables, 2009). Consumers have also gotten used to paying less (Elmkvist, 2019) and to be able to buy new clothes with new seasons (Tobiasen, 2019). The seasonal collections and relating sales are considered a sustainability barrier (Tobialsen, 2019), since designers get less time to design sustainable fashion (Nielsen, 2019). The fashion industry as a cultural industry is here in tension with environmental sustainability (Stables, 2009) as the seasons do not allow the time to make sustainable decisions. They need to follow the pressure due to annual fashion fairs where they are expected to bring new products (Tobiasen, 2019).

However, it is also stated that the designers want to make new things in new collections (Tobiasen, 2019; Nielsen, 2019). Managers have the responsibility to challenge

environmental issues, but should be supplemented with information from research (Starik and Kanashiro, 2013). A way to control the timeframe of designing sustainably, is at Won Hundred to make six collections a year instead of four with the same amount of products, to give the designers less products to design at a time (Nielsen, 2019). Still, Nilsen (2019) states, there will always be consumers who want what is cheapest, which often is polyester products (Nielsen, 2019). Møgelgaard (2019) explain how H&M use on-going feedback to report how collections are received and what sells.

5.3.3 Market- and process-driven approach to sustainability in fashion

As the issues of sustainability have become more present, so has the issue of balancing sustainability and business (Caniato, Caridi, Crippa, Moretto, 2012). Despite the agreement that it is easier to start an organisation sustainable, Tobiasen (2019) who started Serendipity Organics, explains that sustainability had not emerged at that time in 2003, and that it took two to three years to find the right suppliers to deliver natural and organic products. In 2011, H&M also experienced difficulties finding sustainable fabrics as they started to look for sustainable cotton and also found it challenging to scale up materials (Møgelgaard, 2019).

Through their sustainable spring collections and ‘conscious’ collection, they are now able to test new sustainable fabrics (Møgelgaard, 2019).

Theory confirms that there has been a lack of information on the connection between environmental sustainability and the textile industry (Desore and Narula, 2018). Moreover, the market in Denmark for sustainable fashion was too small and Serendipity Organics needed to aim for bigger market (Tobiasen, 2019). Taking a stand to deliver organic cotton and natural material has made their consumers expect these materials and they have since been able to expand from children's clothes to baby and women clothes (Tobiasen, 2019). It seems they have overcome the barriers of personal and economic factors and that the previous lack of awareness (Goworek, 2011) seem to have increased.

Blanche also started from a sustainable foundation and wanted to make always-available everyday items, e.g. jeans and jerseys, better (Fredin, 2019). Both Blanche and Serendipity Organics is in line with the market-driven process, where they seek to differentiate products and get competitive advantage through environment-friendly products (Desore and Narula, 2018). Fredin (2019) supports the argument of starting a business sustainable like she did, rather than changing a hundred and eighty degrees. Fredin (2019) notes that it is possible to just choose recycled fabrics from the beginning. However, she further states that

conventional fabrics always will be easier to use and implement, even though awareness among suppliers has increased as well (Fredin, 2019). Long-term buyer-supplier

relationships are in theory argued to help the environmental focus (Caniato et al, 2012). The increase in awareness among consumers (Desore and Narula, 2018) may have had a different effect on the designers’ experiences in using sustainable materials from the start of Blanche in 2017 compared to when Serendipity Organics started in 2003. The rapid increase in awareness also contributes to confusion for designers, because new information may suddenly be less sustainable than previously believed (Fredin, 2019).

For some of the designers, it is important to start with sustainable objectives and change one product group at a time (Nielsen, 2019; Adler, 2019). This is specifically important at

Soulland and Won Hundred, as these brands follow the process-driven sustainability strategy to reduce environmental issues and secure cost-savings in their approach (Desore and Narula, 2018). Their examples show how they try to control waste, redesign the

production process and use recycled materials (Desore and Narula, 2018). Product groups, like shirts, can be focused to consist of organic or recycled fabrics (Adler, 2019), and objectives include putting a percentage on level of sustainability (Nielsen, 2019). Jersey fabrics are stated to be easy to get in a clean fibre and the sustainability possibilities include recycling, organic and certifications, like Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) (Nielsen, 2019). Denim has some of the same possibilities, but is produced on heavy water processes and therefore

affect the environment on a higher level (Nielsen, 2019). Recycled yarn is also an option (Elmkvist, 2019; Adler, 2019). These actions do however seem to also require a market-driven strategy through the use of labelling (Desore and Narula, 2018). The demands for sustainable products include retailers asking the designers for recycled products and sustainability certifications (Nielsen, 2019), but there is doubt if certifications for recycled fabrics exist (Elmkvist, 2019).

All interviewees were asked whether designers could change the way the industry works for the better. Tobiasen (2019) does not consider the creative process of designing products a way to change the industry. Adler (2019) also argue that he does not believe the silhouette of the clothing will change the industry, but that designers can change some things by making the right choices. However, Fredin (2019) explains that every line drawn on a design requires a production process and that a lot of details therefore is less sustainable. The creative design process is considered by her to have a large impact (Fredin, 2019).

Moreover, several of the designers believe that a change starts in the design (Adler, 2019;

Nielsen, 2019; Møgelgaard, 2019), but the industry as a whole, needs to change too (Fredin, 2019). Fredin (2019) further believes that designers can only change the industry to a certain degree pushing towards sustainability.

The sustainable design of a product is stated to be the easiest to accomplish (Kahn and Islam, 2015) and working hands-on with eco-design makes the process manageable (Stables, 2009). In production, Nielsen (2019) describe how they distinguish between the concept of ‘cut-make-trim’ (CMT) production and a ‘full business’ approach. The first approach allows the designers to choose the fabrics, trimming and make the patterns, so that only production is executed by the suppliers, and the process and level of sustainability can be controlled by the company themselves (Nielsen, 2019). This approach supports how designers can manage creativity and sustainability (Stables, 2009).

Full business means that the supplier is responsible for the entire process and designers only are able to choose from that selection of materials (Nielsen, 2019). The demand for low production cost is the reason why people choose to relocate production, but is also causing more transportation and pollution (Caniato et al, 2012). Two conflicting statements are found in the production possibilities as Nielsen (2019) argue that “in China, everything is possible”, but Fredin (2019) argues that some product groups in China; “you should almost avoid, if you want to be sustainable”. The issue of production lies also in the minimum requirement placed by production and suppliers (Nielsen, 2019), while also waste arise in the way the factories program the production (Adler, 2019). As demands for fast fashion has grown

(Brodish, Nixon and Cirka, 2011), it can be assumed that the planning and programming of production also is affected by time pressure.

Concluding notes

The sustainability term is not new and everyone should be able to contribute, due to a shared responsibility. The industry should make a unified response in terms of sustainability, but consumers should as well, because small fashion organisations cannot change the industry alone. Further, a change starts in design, but value chains need to follow and offer sustainable options. Balancing a creative and relevant organisation and sustainability is important, since consumers does not buy products primarily on sustainable properties.

Despite lack in research and a possibility to improve, it is found that implementing

sustainability will provide economic advantage. However, a change in practice is needed.

Price, fashion seasons and lack of materials are design barriers and seen as unsustainable, because it increases production and consumption. Primarily sustainable clothes for children is valued by consumers, but the increase in awareness among suppliers and consumers have also helped. Different initiatives have already been taken to design out negative impact, but designers cannot perform better than options available to them. There is a difference of opinion to whether the creative process can provide better environmental sustainability and the designers can only change the industry to some extent by making the right choices.